Provo residents are turning to online social media groups to sell used products that would have otherwise ended up in a yard sale on their front lawns.
These sellers are posting their items to Facebook pages created to buy and sell housing, clothing, furniture, wedding decor and even cars.
In reference to the group, Provo Indoor Yard Sale, Taylor Jarman, a junior majoring in English often uses the simple simple resource. “If I have something I need to sell, that is always where I will go, It’s just so easy.”
According to Jarman, she began using social media as a transaction tool after her wedding. She had many unwanted gifts that couldn’t be returned. A relative encouraged her to use the Provo Indoor Yard sale Facebook group, and she has been an advocate for it ever since.
Jarman believes the best part about using Provo Indoor Yard sale is the ability to conduct sales through Facebook as a medium of communication.
“Facebook is so much easier for communicating a sale rather than the text and emails you have to use for KSL and Craigslist. I don’t mind getting a million Facebook notifications, but I hate getting tons of texts and emails all the time,” Jarman said.
Hunter Fowler, a junior studying family studies and human development, said she feels that Provo may not be the best city for selling items at full or reasonable price.
“People in Provo are pretty cheap,” Fowler said. “On sites like this, they never want to pay what you originally bought something for. I’ve tried to sell a nice camera on there for what it is worth, or a shirt from Target that I have never worn before and nobody will buy it for my asking price. I want to sell things for what they are worth.”
Even Jarman, a frequent user of Facebook’s buying and selling groups, said she has a tough time with Facebook’s content filtering system.
“My biggest complaint, and really my only complaint, is that there can almost be too many people on the page,” Jarman said. “This makes it so you can’t always see everything that is posted. Sometimes I will post something on the page to be sold, but nobody will ever see it because Facebook cycles through things when there is too much content on at once.”
Although Facebook buying and selling groups are increasing in popularity, Jordan Christiansen, public relations and marketing manager for the Marriott School of Business, said they don’t have courses within the school that specifically teach students how to use social media as a business. While marketing, Internet and digital classes do touch on social media, there is no class that is strictly social media focussed.
“The social media education we give students here is mostly focused on creating and using their own brands,” Christiansen said. “Most of our programs require each student to create a LinkedIn profile to help them make connections in the business world. We encourage students to create professional profiles to help with their networking and career advancement opportunities.”
According to the Facebook Help Center, any purchase made through a Facebook sale group is between the buyer and the seller. They ask buyers to keep in mind that they don’t own or stock any items a seller lists. The statement states if a buyer has any questions about the things they are buying in a Facebook sale group, they should try contacting the seller. They ask the sellers to describe the items they are selling clearly and to make sure they follow both the and outlined by Facebook.
Some of the most popular and useful Facebook buying and selling groups for Utah County are listed below:
10 Facebook Buying and Selling Groups for Utah County
2. Lindon/Orem/Provo/Springville Yard Sale
5. The New Spanish Fork Indoor Yard Sale
7. Salem Utah Indoor Yard Sale
9. All Things Wedding Utah Buy/Sell/Trade
10. Utah Used Cars- SEDANS, SUV, Vans, Trucks. BUY-SELL-TRADE.
